HAVE you ever browsed around a shopping center or downloaded a shopping app, fallen in love with a frock, and bought it on the spur of the moment? Have you given it any thought as to where it ultimately ends up or how it was made in the first place?
We rarely stop to consider the safety or well-being of developing nation laborers working in distant villages' textile factories or the locations of old clothing disposal sites.
In actuality, clothing that does not find a home in someone's elegant wardrobe ends up polluting landfills.
Melissa Tan, a former shopaholic who is now an advocate for climate change and sustainability, used to spend her time and money in malls attempting "to score the next best sale."
She now fervently supports sustainability, The Sun reported.
She noted, "Everyone was prone to this idea that we could buy our way to happiness."
However, when returning to my closet, I am overcome with the sensation that regardless of my purchases, I still feel as though I have nothing to wear. I reasoned that I would just go out and buy more, attempting to simultaneously declutter the wardrobe.
Throwaway culture
It used to be about following the "trend." These days, it resembles following the newest "micro" trend. More products are being purchased and thrown away by consumers more quickly than before. Worse, we live in a world where garments are thrown away after one wear and posted to Instagram with a picture. The 36-year-old model bemoaned that "the same clothes can't be worn again."
Fashionable, inexpensive clothing is easily thrown away. People are viewing social media pages and believing they have to appear exactly like that, rather than knowing who they are and how they want to dress.
Tan quickly realized that the clothing was basically the same designs produced in larger quantities and with lower quality.
Alluring promotional techniques
Fashion experts would advise us to buy a whole new wardrobe every year. Where are the clothes from last year now?
"People will attempt to give them out or distribute them. The clothing eventually ends up in landfills. Every year, the world produces between 100 and 150 billion articles of clothing, but where does the garbage go? Giving money is not the answer.
Tan stated that in actuality, a large portion ends up in landfills and very little is recovered or repurposed. She brought up the Atacama Desert, which used to be a popular tourist spot but is currently becoming a place where old clothing is dumped.
"Clothes, whether pre-owned or donated, are shipped to developing nations for sale and eventually disposed of in their landfills rather than in their home country."
hazardous working environment
Tan requests that fashionistas investigate the manufacturing processes used in impoverished nations to create clothing. It seems that a rather "unfashionable way" is used to make trendy clothing.
Workers labor in hazardous conditions for long hours for little pay while factories flout safety regulations and expose staff members to potentially harmful substances.
A clothing with low production costs will cost less. Thus, some disregard the safety of their employees and their working environment.
Overproduction and overconsumption are the true problems. Important concerns such, "Who is making my clothes, were they made in safe working conditions with fair pay, and was the production process environmentally responsible?" are ones that we should ask ourselves.
"We should consider whether we truly need so many clothes and explore ways to improve our relationship with them."
Participate in a revolution
Over a thousand people perished when the Bangladeshi textile factory Rana Plaza collapsed more than ten years ago. Following that catastrophe, "Fashion Revolution" was established to promote moral and just behavior. It is the biggest fashion activism movement in the world, uniting communities across 75 nations.
With the goal of fostering a culture of slow and cyclical fashion, Tan is the country coordinator of Fashion Revolution Malaysia, which organizes Fashion Revolution Week and features events including workshops, community circle engagement, and clothes exchanging.
"Fashion Revolution aims to change our relationship with fashion and to demand a better, safer world for those working in the apparel industry. We want people to join this revolution and demand these things." People are purchasing clothing on impulse, because it is inexpensive, and because they have been duped by shrewd marketing tactics. In addition, they attempt to imitate everything they see on social media because they find it fascinating. Everybody contributes to the continuation of a culture. Rather, we ought to take center stage or exert influence to effect change, investigate different approaches, and exhibit greater style, according to Tan. /BGNES